Remembrance
by inu-babe34
Summary: When someone you cherish and love dies, it can sometimes take some tough love and bad experiences to get over it. Even when somebody is gone, they can still help you...maybe even help you find love. SessXKag one-shot, to those who've lost loved ones.


**This is dedicated to my friend who just lost her grandfather recently. She'll never know about this because it's a fanfiction and I keep my fanfiction out of my regular life, but I hope that everybody out there reading can take something from this. It's a bit different from what I usually do, but I really needed to get this out there, for her sake and for the sake of her grandfather. My condolences go out to anybody that has ever lost a family member, friend, or any other loved one.**

**I also do not own Inuyasha or anything affiliated with it. But seeing that as of now I'm not courageous enough to put out my own story with my own characters, I have to use my favorite anime to play out my stories.**

**_Remembarance_**

She heard someone calling for her, but she simply didn't have the strength to get up off the floor. Even if she did have the physical strength, Kagome didn't have the will to move, let alone to stand up. Her heart felt like it had been ripped out of her body and thrown out her second story window onto the streets of the ever-busy streets of Tokyo, where it was left to be ran over time and time again.

"Kagome, get off of the floor or you'll soon catch your death." Her mother said and winced at her own use of the word that was now enfoced as taboo. "Grandpa wouldn't like it." Came out the strangled ending. Yes, she was truly and desperately hurt from what had happened to her father, but she still needed to keep the rest of her family safe. That meant getting her daughter off the floor and getting her to eat. It had been two days since she was forced to lay the news on her only daughter, and Kagome hadn't eaten a thing since; hadn't even spoken a single word.

Kagome turned her pained gaze from the top of her ceiling to her mother, hopeing that she would get the message. God knows she wasn't going to speak one word to anybody for anything. Thankfully her mom got the message and scurried out, shutting the door behind her. Honestly she wasn't mad at her mother, she just wanted her to leave so that she could be alone. That's the only reason she had given her mother the intense glare that she had.

Once the older woman was gone, she returned her eyes to the spot on the ceiling above her. All the memories of her grandfather were passing before her eyes, and she had no control to stop it. It was agonizing, but satisfying at the same time. Agonizing in knowing that the one she was seeing, she'd never be able to communicate with again. Satisfying that she knew that they had spent the very best of their times together.

Her grandfather was such an amazing person; one of the kindest people to ever walk the planet. In her heart she knew that he lived his life to the fullest and enjoyed every minute of it. Plus, now he was in a better place anyways. His death had been peaceful, from what her mother told her. He died in his sleep of natural causes, found the next morning by his wife of over 60 years. They only lived a few houses down the street from her grandparent's shrine, so the news got to them fast. Tomorrow morning at ten was to be his funeral, to be held at the shrine he ran. Honestly, Kagome was dreading it. She didn't want more of a reminder that he was gone.

Suddenly her door swung open, making a loud bang as the door nob hit the wall. Turning her head once again, glare in place, she expected to see her mother again. Instead there was an irate looking young man, her little brother Souta to be precise.

"Kagome, get up now! Mom and I are sick of having to deal with your mopeing! Isn't it already enough that we're grieving Grandfather, but we have to take care of you as well? Stop being so damn selfish!" He yelled at her, beinging to go red in the face. Kagome used everything she had left to push herself up off of the ground. Then she towered over her younger brother and slapped him not so lightly across his cheek.

"Don't you even dare talk to me like that Souta, it isn't your place." Kagome snarled at him. Souta shook off the shock and stared at her with such an intensity that she thought that it would bore a hole into her skull. Not that she would mind much.

"And it's not your place to be slapping me Kagome. Open your eyes for once and realize it's not just you that's hurting. All of us are, and you're just making everything worse." He said and departed from the room quickly, slamming the door behind him. Souta tried to hide it, but Kagome had seen the tears welling in his eyes. But she took what he said to heart; she really was making everything worse for her family.

Realization was quickly dawning on her. Souta was in fact right, she was being completely selfish and making things worse for the people around her. That was stopping now. She moved her shaky legs to her desk across from her and took a seat in the cushioned pink chair. Kagome wiped her face down with a cleansing pad to get rid of the leftover tear residue that was still there, and then continued on by putting on some foundation. After removing her dorky old glasses and replacing them with contacts, she took a look in the mirror while brushing out her dark hair. You could barely even tell that she was crying anymore, and even the smallest traces would be gone soon.

Yet, no matter how hard she tried, you could still clearly see the distresed look on her fair, the pain and coldness behind her eyes. It would be clear for anyone to see, but she didn't give a shit. She was going to get her mind off of this, and she knew the perfect way how. Kagome picked up the white chorded phone and dialed a somewhat-unused number that was on a sticky note by the phone so she wouldn't forget. After a few rings, somebody on the other line picked up.

"Is Sango there?" She asked in her small, broken voice. The person, she assumed Sango's father, told her to hold on while he got his oldest.

"Hello?" Said the sound of her, what could be considered, best friend.

"Hi Sango, it's Kagome."

"Oh, hey Kagome. What's up?" She asked, either not noticing the difference in her voice or choosing not to act upon it.

"Um, my grandfather died two days ago...I kind of want to get my mind off of things here, did you want to hang out?" She asked ackwardly.

"I'm so sorry Kagome, he was a good man. Of course we can hang out, does the mall sound alright to you? We can go shopping." Sango tempted, already trying to cheer up the depressed girl.

"That sounds great, meet you at the front entrance in fourt-five?"

"Sure thing. I'll see you there, send your family my best wishes." She said sympathetically.

"Okay, bye."

"Bye." Kagome heard and hung the phone up delicately on the reciever. She bit her bottom lip to keep in from quivering and her eyes from watering up. Instead of bawling her eyes out she stripped herself of the drowning black sweats and replaced them with a slim black sweater and a pair of light wash jeans. Kagome kept her hair down, letting it cascade around her face and down to the small of her back.

Taking the last few steps out of the sanctuary that was her room was harder than she expected. She didn't really know wheather or not she was ready to get out yet, it had only been two days after all. What if she fell apart? Well what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger she supposed. So, with as much courage as she could muster she walked out of her room and into the deserted hallway. Kagome clenched her fists tight and put a passive face on as she walked down the dark staircase towards the main floor where she was sure her mother and brother were. Where else could they be? The only room on the top floor/attick was hers.

"Momma? Souta? Where are you?" She called out as she began snooping around the main floor. She got no answer, nor did she see them anywhere. Just as she was about to start freaking out she saw a note attached to the fridge.

_Dear Kagome, _

_If you're reading this then congratulations, you've rejoined the living world. Me and mom didn't even bother to try and get you to come with us, because we knew that you'd be too busy wallowing in your own sorrow to move. We went to the grocery store across town to get some things for tomorrow, we should be back by dark._

_Souta_

At first she was a little ticked off that they hadn't even think about asking her to go along, but once she thought about it she couldn't really say that she blamed them. All they would have recieved in return for the offer was a glare and maybe even a small growl. Definately not any hint of appreciation.

Since she was going to leave, she didn't want her family to think something bad had happened to her. So instead of calling the cell phones her family didn't have in the first place, she took the banana magnet that was holding up the note Souta left and turned it around and replacing the magnet. She then took her favorite blue ink pen out of the purse on the counter and wrote down a note for them.

_Dear Mom and Souta, _

_Thanks for the congrats., I thought on things a little more and decided that I need to stop being a drama queen and get out. I called Sango and we're going to go shopping at the mall for a while. I should be back around dark, see you then._

_Much love, Kagome_

With that she clicked her pen shut and dropped it in her purse. She slipped on her black flats and then walked out the door and onto the busy Tokyo street. She wondered how it was so busy around here and yet it was seemingly always empty by her grandparent's. Kagome was jolted out of her thoughts as the doors opened to the city bus in front of her. She stepped in and put the correct change into the drop box.

"You alright miss?" The bus driver asked as she walked past him. She stopped and looked back, fake smile plastered on. But the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Fine." Kagome said and walked towards the back of the bus, taking a seat as close to the back door as she could. It took quite a while because of all the stops the bus took, but she finally made it there on time. She was just in time to see Sango walking from her car towards her.

"Hey Kagome, ready to do some shopping?" She asked with a smile and hugged her just as she got off the bus.

"Yeah, but can we get some lunch first? I havn't eaten today." Or the day before, she added to herself.

"Sure, I didn't get a chance to eat before I left. Where do you want to go?" She asked as they started walking towards the revolving doors.

"I don't really care, I just want my belly full." She said with a somewhat-genuine smile. She was so distracted by the pain she felt in her heart that it completely overshadowed the grumbling in her stomach.

"Alright then, let's eat! My treat." Sango said and got them a table.

**_Remembrance_**

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at the shrine." Sango said and gave her a quick hug. "Are you sure you don't want a ride home?" She said as she started the ignition and grabbed the door handle ready to shut it.

"No, I'll just ride the bus home. Thanks though, and yeah...see you tomorrow." Kagome said and stepped back as Sango pulled out and began the drive to her home. Kagome rubbed her back and walked down to the end of the block where the bus was supposed to be in a few minutes. After gorging herself at lunch they had been shopping all around the mall for over five hours, and all she wanted to do was get home. She sat down on the bench that was by the bus stop.

"Excuse me, but are you waiting for the bus?" Said a middle aged woman she hadn't noticed before.

"Yes.." She said slowly and pulled her purse closer to herself. The woman simply chuckled.

"Well it won't be here for another half an hour. You're welcome to wait here with me if you'd like." She said and sat closer to Kagome than was comfortable.

"That's okay, I really should be getting home, and it's not that far from here. Have a good night." Kagome said and scurried off the bench and down the street. Frankly, the woman creeped her out, and she was **not **going to wait for the bus with her. She felt safer walking home. Besides, it was only a little after sunset. She could get home before it was even very dark.

Ten minutes later though, it was very dark. The street lamps were even on, and she happened to be walking past a very secluded and quiet business district.

_'Damn, I forgot that the sun is beginning to go down quicker now that fall is approaching. Crap! I'm going to be a senior in three weeks!' _Kagome worriedly thought to herself.

Suddenly she took in her surroundings, and they scared her. She was in a secluded business district, few cars ever passed by and it seemed the people who worked around here had already left for home. Not good. The place was really giving her the creeps by now, and she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched and/or followed.

"Maybe I should have waited for the bus after all." She mused to herself and played with the fabric on the sleeves of her sweater.

"But if you did then we wouldn't get to have any fun with you." Said a thick raspy voice not far behind her. Kagome gasped and turned around to see three men approaching her fast. Her eyes went wide and she turned around and sprinted at top speed towards her home. She heard heavy footsteps following her, closing in. This was it, she was going to be raped and then killed tonight. She never even got to say goodbye to the rest of her family. They would find out when the police called them after they found her dead in a ditch. Or maybe they wouldn't find her body, and they wouldn't know about her fate until years later...either situation was not good nor something she wished to happen.

Something grabbed her arm and yanked her back, causing her to fall flat onto her butt. She looked up horrified into the face of her predator. He was wearing dark, sketchy clothing; dark unruly hair, and a wicked grin on his scarred face. The two standing to the sides of her looked no better.

"P-please, take my money! Just let me go, I won't tell a soul!" She pleaded, shoving her purse towards them, hopeing that she could leave with her life. They just laughed and snatched the purse away from her.

"Thanks for the money baby, but that's not what we came lookin' for." He said and pulled her up by the hair and leading her off towards the alley about twenty yards in front of them.

By this time the first thug had covered her hand with his mouth and was still dragging/leading her towards the alleyway. Kagome knew that she would probably get killed for this, but she wasn't going to give up the fight that easily. Her grandfather would have been dissapointed that she didn't try hard enough, and that's something she wouldn't have. So she bit down as hard as she could and kneed him in the groin. The other two goons watched in utter shock as their leader let go their little captive and doubled over in pain, cursing. As soon as she was let free, Kagome grabbed her purse from off the ground and ran like the hounds of hell were at her heels.

"Get her! The little bitch is trying to run away!" The leader yelled and tried to stand up. Kagome ran as fast as her feet could take her, but she tripped over a garbage can lid, skidding to a hard stop on the concrete sidewalk. She yelled with all of the power she had left, screamed for anybody to help her. But nobody came. The goons caught up to her just as she was picking herself up and drug her back by the scruff of her neck, throwing her broken body towards their leader who was now wiping his bleeding finger on his pants, smirking at her.

"That was very naughty my little pet, I think you need to be punished." He said and kicked her left hip, which had taken the majority of the hurt when she fell. She screamed out in pain. "You should learn to behave pet. No yelling now," he said and put his face up to hers "There's nobody here to save you. Might as well give up and make things easier."

"Let me go you sick bastards!" She yelled and took a nip at his nose, making him scowl. He moved back a step from her, but not far away enough. She kicked his leg and spid in his face, all the while struggling to get away with the two men holding each of her arms.

"Come on, let's have our fun with her quick. This one's really pissing me off." Said the man that was holding her right arm.

"Shut up you little whore! What's a pretty girl like yourself doing out here all alone anyways?" Sneered the leader as he led the three behind him to the alley.

"None of your damn business! You know what? I pitty you. You must be really cold hearted and dumb to not get a girl. And that's even when they get past the fact that you're extremely ugly." She said mockingly, hopeing to strike a nerve with them. She knew that if she could get them mad enough that they would make some tiny mistake, or a doorway to her freedome.

"Why you little fucking.." But he didn't finish his sentence, instead he grabbed ahold of her neck and threw her into the side of a brick building. "Hold her down! Once I finish with her you two can play with our little pet all you want." He said and stared at her, up and down, up and down. It was making her heart beat harder and harder, making her even more frightened. She would never show them fear though, she would not give them the satisfaction.

"I assume your last 'little pet' was some poor innocent dog? You all seem the type." She said disgusted and propped herself up against the building, there was no point in standing up yet. They would only throw her back down.

"Feisty and quick whitted, it's too bad that we're going to have to kill you. You're just my type." The leader bit out with a hint of malice.

"I'm your type? I was mistaken then, I thought your type was a chihuahua, maybe a shitzu." She said smirking. "No, I'm just playing with you all. I know you're more attracted to the weiner dogs."

"Do you ever shut your damn mouth?!" One of the henchmen said and slapped her across the face.

"Why don't you shut your mouth and watch in sheer pleasure as your boss gets a hard-on." She said, trying to put as much hate into her words as possible. She could see that their tempers were flaring and their efficientness slipping.

"That's it, give me something to gag her with!" The leader said and kicked Kagome in the stomach, making her lose her breath. "You just don't know when to quit, do you? Well now I'll make sure to drag this on and on and on, and then your death will be painful and slow. They'll never find your body, nobody will ever know what happened. How does it feel to know you'll be gone within hours?"

"At least I'll be away from the likes of you. Death is better company than you. You're nothing but sniveling pig-like cowards! You should be ashamed to even call yourself people, you're nothing but disgusting animals!" She screamed, slowly rising as she went on. By the end she was standing to her full height and screaming at them so passionatly and fiercely that they looked sort of amazed. Then once she was done she did a swift round house kick to the thug on the right, kick where the sun don't shine to the thug on her left, and a punch directed at the nose to their leader who was standing in front of her.

While what she did actually did some damage, it wasn't enought to get them to move away from her. In fact they started cornering her, backing her closer and closer to the building until her back was pressed up against it.

"It's been fun babe, but not it's about to get funner. Hope you don't mind, I'm sorta into violent sex." He said with a wicked grin and pulled out a pocket knife and some brass knuckles. As he came nearer to her he unzipped his pants, slipped on the brass knuckles, and snapped open the knife. She put her hands togther and put one last prayer out to God that somebody, anybody would save her. Then she screamed like hell.

"What's going on here?" She heard and opened her eyes that she hadn't realize she closed. The voice wasn't from one of the thugs she realized and looked to her right and saw the shadow of a tall man standing at the entrance to the alley.

"None of your fucking business, just having some fun with our lady friend here. Now get to steppin'." The leader said and leaned down to Kagome for a kiss. At that point, she screamed again.

"Please, don't go! Help me, I'm about to be raped!" She pleaded, hopeing with all of her heart that the man had one ounce of compassion in his body, or at least pity. Kagome smiled to herself as she watched him get closer and closer to her. Her savior.

"I said get steppin' fucker!" The leader said and stood up to his full height, more than prepared to hurt the man. The man got in his face regardless.

"Watch how you speak to people, or you might find yourself dead in a ditch some day soon." Said the man's voice and it was then that he turned to her. "Get up." He said gruffly and she did as he said.

"You have no idea who you're messing with." Said one of the thugs and pulled out a knife. The man just chuckled and reached into his jacket pocket. When his hand came back out there was a pistol in his hand. The thugs backed up.

"I believe that **you** don't know who you're messing with. Now get the hell out of my sight you filthy vermin." Her savior said and pointed the gun at them as they backed away from her and then ran from the alley. Once he was sure they were long gone, he looked back at her. "Are you okay?" He said and put the gun back where it came from.

"Yeah, peachy." She said and laughed lightly.

"Follow me." He ordered, and she obeyed not wanting the thugs to find her once again. Once they were out of the alley Kagome finally saw her savior. Like she already knew, he was very tall. In addition to that he had the longest hair she had ever seen on a male, down to his knees and it was platinum blonde. He was well built and had a tough attitude from what she could tell. But when he turned around she had to catch her breath, he had the most stunning eyes. They were cold and the most unusual shade of amber.

"I said get in." He said to her, taking her out of the shock he himself had induced upon her. It was then she noticed that they were standing in front of a black car, and that he had the passenger door opened for her. She nodded and stepped inside of it and he closed the door behind her before walking to the driver's side and got in, immediately strapping in his seatbelt. She followed suit and looked over at him. He was just gripping the steering wheel, tightly, and staring hard through the windshield.

"Thank you for saving me." She said weakly and slunk down into the black leather seat.

"Where do you live?" He asked and started up the car, making the lights turn on, casting an eerie green shadow on their faces.

"Five blocks ahead then 10 blocks to the left." She said and looked out her window. He nodded and pulled out onto the street, following her loose directions until they reached the street she lived on. "What house?"

"The only white house on the block, has a cherry tree in the front yard." She said and pointed it out. He nodded and pulled up to the curb. It was now completely black outside and she was sure her family was worrying about her.

"We will meet here tomorrow at noon, we will go to a restaurant of your choice." He said and unlocked the doors so she could get out. She looked over to him, and even he could see the pain in her eyes.

"No we won't. I'm going to my grandfather's funeral tomorrow morning." She said, voice cracking some as the pain rushed back.

"Where and at what time? I will acompany you." He said with absolutly no emotion to his voice. Usually if somebody were to talk to her like that she would get offended, but with him it just attracted her more.

"The Higurashi Shrine and I'll be there at 9:30. Don't be late." She said and opened the door, letting herself out. Just as she was about to shut the door and walk away, she bent down and looked back in the car. "What's your name?"

"Sesshomaru."

"Kagome. Nice to meet you."

"Hn."

"What, not pleased to meet me?"

"Hn."

"Is that all you can say?"

"Hn."

"Goodnight. Hn." She said and smiled at him before shutting the car door and walking up to his house. What she didn't know was that he smiled for one of the few times in his life.

**_Remembrance_**

"I still think about you every day Grandpa, you're so important to me. I got married a few months ago. It was beautiful, but sort of odd feeling to me....I always thought you would be the one walking me down the aisle, not Souta. He just graduated by the way, top of his class. Me and mama are so proud of him, so is Grandma. It's so surreal, it's been exactly five years since you left the living world, but it only feels like last week when I come here. I know that you're watching all of us up there, and we're just waiting to see you again." Kagome said and paused for a moment while she composed herself. "I really do miss you with all of my heart Grandpa, you do so much for me. Even after your passing you've helped me. If not for you, I would have never met my husband. I'm going to go now Gramps, I'll talk to you later." She ended and traced his name with her fingers.

Kagome felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into those amber eyes that she'd been mesmerized by ever since she first saw them. He smiled down at her and nodded, extending a hand to her. She took it and helped pull herself up. They walked back in a comfortable silence back to his sleek black car. Once they were settled in Sesshomaru looked over to her and met her eyes.

"You did well Kagome."

"Hn." She said and smiled mischeviously. He chuckled.

"Is that all you can say?" He recived another 'Hn'.

"Would it please you if we named him Sakio?" Sesshomaru said and put his hand on her growing stomach. She looked into his eyes, at a loss for words.

"Oh, thank you Maru!" She said and hugged him as best as she could. "You read my thoughts."

"Not your thoughts, just your actions. When you traced his name out, you really said it all." He said and held her close. "Kagome, sometimes I know that his death is really hard to cope with, and that you get really scared and depressed, but I envy you. You never stay that way for long, and you're so brave. I love you Kagome, always remember and know that."

"I love you too Sesshomaru. And I'm not that brave, I just try to keep in mind that when I get so sad when I think about him...all I do is hurt the people that I love. It's good to think about the people you're no longer with, but you can't let it control your life." She said and pulled away after a quick kiss. He smiled at her and then drove them away from Sakio Higurashi's grave site.

**Well, that's the end. I hope you all liked it. This is just going to be a one-shot, because this was just so hard to write and I don't know if I can take writing up a second part. Also, sorry if I didn't really stick to just the death and mourning, but I had to put some action, drama, and romance in there or else it just wouldn't be me. So deal with it. Once again, this is for my friend and her grandfather. Much love to everyone out there, later.**


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